


3, 2, 1, Happy New Year!

by conniptionns



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: AU—what if Neil was never in Millport, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-02
Updated: 2018-01-02
Packaged: 2019-02-27 07:05:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13243062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/conniptionns/pseuds/conniptionns
Summary: Stefan Andersson is set adrift after he has to burn his mother's remains on a beach in South Carolina. He stumbles into a bar, listless as the patrons around him get ready to ring in the New Year. Ironic that the state slogan was "While I breathe, I hope," because it was Neil was the one that was breathing but he had no hope—oh yeah, he's Neil now. Neil Josten, because he doesn't have anyone to make sure he doesn't make conversation in bars and he fucked up. Neil's in luck because even if time is an ever repeating cycle, he's always interesting enough to catch a certain blond's interest.





	3, 2, 1, Happy New Year!

**Author's Note:**

> Very short transmission from me. I'm late but I'm here to herald you into the New Year, huzzah! I hope to start posting again soon. I just updated Painting a Hole with a 7,000~ word chapter and it didn't do too hot. Discouraged af, but I'm trying to rally for you! Happy New Year, my doves! I'm rooting for you

_ Man is in a perpetual state of flux. _

Stefan had been in the hazy bar since the doors had been opened to begin preparation for New Year’s Eve. Now, it was three minutes before or after midnight—he hadn’t been paying attention. Somewhere in the last hour and a half, he forgot how to blink. He sat there, back to the wall and watched people sit on beat up barstools and chainsmoke; blowing the acrid taste of ash in the face of anyone who had the misfortune of speaking to them.

Only he wasn’t really watching people anymore. Somewhere between watching a girl on molly sing Auld Lang Syne to the tune of Wheels on the Bus and finding the short, stocky blond staring back at him, Stefan had gotten lost in a sea of his own thoughts.

His shoulder was jostled as people tried to force their way through the cram of people standing just off the dance floor. As if people were going to part like the Red Sea if they stuck their hands together and made a tiny human cowcatcher.

Stefan was of the opinion that time percolated like coffee; wholly repetitive and a product of reincarnation. Time would unfold as it did and then further as it did. The only change that would ever happen would be what was put into it. Stefan put his grounds into the basket of his coffee pot, knowing the exact process would never change, yet the outcome was never the same. If he positioned the filter wrong, Stefan would end up with a mug full of the grainy grounds, but wouldn’t know until after the process was over. His only option would then be to start over and be more careful if he were determined to get the results he wanted.

Time was a little bit like that. Outside of the world turning and changing on the outside of Stefans’s glass house, every year passed in much the same fashion. Stefan had to hope when the calendar turned over for 1/1 that he was putting everything in the right way, but he would never know until the last minutes of the last day of the year.

His mother was dead. In the world of metaphors, this was his mug full of only grounds and no coffee. He didn’t know what he had done so wrong to make it happen. Somewhere along the way he told himself to dump the grounds in the basket and he put them in his mug, and now his mother was dead.

Stefan didn’t know if he was choking on the cigarette smoke or the lingering scent of his mother’s ashes on his coat. He didn’t care—just pulled the collar tighter.

_ 3...2...1...Happy New Year! _

And so the calendar refreshed itself. The sins of letting his mother die could not follow him into the new year, but Stefan didn’t know how he could ever run fast enough to be rid of them. Everyone was kissing around him and Stefan heard his mother screeching in his head.

He fled to the top floor of the bar, trying to escape the memory of her ire. The crush of bodies was thinner up here and there was a line of pool tables down the floor. Stefan ignored it all and headed for a beat up booth seat that was shoved against the wall, acting as a couch.

The clack of the cue ball was followed by the soft sound of the leather pockets catching balls as they fell. Stefan closed his eyes.

_ Man is in a perpetual state of flux _ .

Stefan knew what that meant. It meant that he was changing, every second becoming someone new like a caterpillar going through its metamorphoses. God he felt like a maggot but even they became flies. There was nothing keeping him from changing, even now. Stefan could walk into this bar and never walk back out. He had done it before. In fact, Stefan wasn’t even the tenth version of himself.

Though he wasn’t sure how he was supposed to become whoever was going to get him out of this bar alive, without his mother. It was her job to come up with aliases, their backgrounds, their stories. Stefan wasn’t cut out for this, but then again, Stefan didn’t have to be.

“Are you high?” It was the blond from the bar.

“I don’t think so, but time isn’t linear so I could be perpetually high if you think about it.”

A heavy weight sat down on the other end of the bench. He glanced over but the blond wasn’t looking at him, just staring forward at the people playing pool.

“You’re not right, Bob.”

“My name is—”  _ Stefan Andersson. Alex Clement. Christopher Wilkes. Matteo Moretti. . . . Nathaniel Wesninski. _

“Your name is what, Slim Shady?”

“Neil...Josten,” he finished lamely.

“Well, Neil Dramatic Pause Josten, I’m Andrew Normal Pause Minyard. I was worried that someone had dosed you with your glazed look back there, but I can see that you’re fine now. You are fine, right?”

“I—” Neil’s voice cracked.  _ Neil _ ’s. Because that’s who he was now.  _ Neil _ .

Andrew had fixed him with his serious gaze once again and Neil didn’t know if he had it in him to lie. Maybe he had been dosed, or maybe Andrew just looked trustworthy, but one glance at the obvious concealed weapons in his armbands told Neil all he needed to know—he was so sleep deprived that he was about to get himself killed. So Neil did what Neil apparently did best.

He bolted.

Neil knew that he was fast. His speed is what had kept him alive all of these years, so he bolted off of the bench like the wrath of the gods was chasing him and he headed for the narrow stairs.

Only he never made it there.

Neil hit a hard wall and before he could fall, two hands shot out to catch him by his shoulders. He glanced up dazed, to see an amused quirk to one faint, blond brow. Fuck.

“And here I thought nothing could keep my interest.”

“I have someone waiting for me,” Neil bleated.

“I’m not holding you against your will,” Andrew scoffed. “But I do think you should come with me. I’ll get you some food and get you in touch with someone I know. He’s good with little fuck ups like you.”

Neil ground his teeth but his stomach wasn’t as stubborn. Neil looked into Andrew’s eyes, hoping that he would see something that would make him trust the man, but there was nothing because trust was earned through a long haul.

“I’ll promise not to use my knives if you promise not to use that gun strapped to your ankle.”

Neil blanched. He supposed it couldn’t hurt to go with him. He had nothing to lose anyway.

“I don’t like knives.”

Andrew’s response was easy. “I can leave them in the car with your gun while we go eat. As long as you know that if you touch me without my permission I will kill you.”

Neil stepped back and out of Andrew’s arms.

“So we’re understood.” Andrew grinned but it made Neil’s stomach curdle. He was definitely going to fucking die.

**Author's Note:**

> I made a reference to a movie with the Bob, so that's what that was. Neil doesn't die! Andrew gets him food and then takes him to Wymack, who takes him on as an assistant coach for a year and then Neil joins the Foxes :)
> 
> @exychamp


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